One of the most critical elements to a successful IoT solution is implementing a deliberate strategy for the ongoing management of devices. Following our preview of Azure IoT Hub device managementearlier this year, our stellar community of developers and partners provided feedback that enabled us to introduce new features and functionality now generally available to all customers.

Azure IoT Hub device management equips IoT developers and operators with the ability to the harness the power of the Azure hyper-scale cloud to organize, monitor, query, and orchestrate changes across billions of devices. IoT operators can leverage Azure IoT Hub device management tools and applications that address many common business needs, including:

Scale & Automation – Simple automation of routine tasks to enable management of millions of devices with a relatively small staff of operators

Context Awareness – Flexible and intelligent design that accounts for the dynamic nature of manufacturing and industrial environments to preserve service reliability, machinery health, and the safety of operators and users

Service Many Roles – Supports the workflows and process of IoT operators while also facilitating collaboration with other mission-critical technical and business roles

With the general availability of Azure IoT Hub device management to all customers, both new and existing Azure IoT Hub customers will have access to these new features and functionality:

Device Twin – The digital representation of your physical devices that allows synchronization of device conditions and operator configuration between the cloud and device.

Direct Methods – Apply a direct, performant action on a connected device through the cloud.

This functionality is available as part of the Azure IoT device SDK and the device-side support is shipping today for C, Node.js, and Python with C# and Java coming soon. In additions to these foundational building blocks, we are also making libraries available to support the following device management actions:

Firmware Update – apply a supplied firmware image on a single device or collection of devices

Reboot – initiate a restart on one or more devices

Factory Reset – revert a device or collection of devices to the initial factory image and configuration

Configuration – use the device twin desired properties to configure the behavior of one or many devices whether they are on or offline